SPRING 2012 Preview

S.C.O.F issue no. 7 spring 2013

S.C.O.F magazine still free

southernS culture pri ng Bre ak f or O ld M en

Fishnik Show me your tail A People Unto Themselves Sunday Funday Wise Bass plus... Bench Press - Church Lady Tunes - Coot Fur and Feather Matinee - DrumBeater and more...

springs.c.o.f break for old men issue no. 7 spring 2013

managing editor co-publisher: David Grossman

art director co-publisher: Steve Seinberg

contributors: Ryan Dunne Murphy Kane Scott Davis Paul Puckett Todd Gregory Louis Cahill Kent Klewein Jay Nelson Brian Carson Brad Sprinkle Chris Willen Charlie Madrerohon

copy editor: Lindsey Grossman

fly editor: Thomas Harvey

general inquiries and submissions: [email protected]

advertising information: [email protected]

southern culture cover: Steve Seinberg

www.southerncultureonthefly.com

154 136 94 66 24 features Spring Break for Old Men

tie-one-on-athon 2013 by davidgrossman sunday funday by toddgregory Coming ofAgewithMuskyintheDirtySouth a peopleuntothemselves: by jaynelson,scottdavis,steveseinberg photo essay: show meyourtail by davidgrossman 48 hoursinatlanta fishnik departments .paul 166 puckett 114 88 58 54 18 14

the backpage .wise bass-kentklewein stratergizing .drum beater-scottdavis fur andfeathermatinee .church lady-bradsprinkle bench press .bentrod media moving pictures .coot tunes forthedrivethere brian carson haiku

photo: Louis Cahill Life Off the Chart ®

PERFORMANCE SPORTSWEAR TrueFlies.com | facebook.com/trueflies From the Editor’s desk... to your bathroom

Spring 2013

I’m old. Steve is even older. Things are starting to fall apart, known as Spring Break. There is no need to fear readers, you smells are emanating from orifices that I’m pretty sure didn’t ex- won’t be seeing my saggy areolas on any late night advertised ist when I was in my twenties and I make noises when I sit down videos, and for you older guys, I won’t be hunting down your or get up that I have no control over. My nights of drinking for a college age daughters at Senor Frogs. I will however be taking a week straight and days of fishing hard for even longer are behind spring break for old men every year from now until the day I can me now and that makes me kind of sad. Never again will I be no longer scream, “SPRING BREAK 99” at the top of my lungs who I was. Now that I have accepted the exponential timeline of in the Wal-Mart checkout line with a cart full of PBR…I’m think- my nether regions wrinkling I have come to the conclusion that ing 40? So this spring we have set out on the road to take back just because I am getting older and acquiring all of the trappings Spring break from the stupidity of youth, and put it back where that age brings with it, I will…NO, I must reserve the right to cel- it belongs…with the stupidity of age. ebrate my youth once a year in the traditional bacchanalian rite Enjoy the Spring Issue,

12 13 . Haiku with Brian Carson

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Louisiana has a sound all its own, and I’m not talking about the retching sound you hear coming from that drunken tourist in the Quarter. It’s a blend of so many different styles that if you pay attention you’re likely to hear gospel, delta blues, zydeco, and a little bit of washboard all while inhaling a beignet in what I consider to be the musical capital of the known universe. With killer slide guitar and eclectic arrangements reminiscent of Little Feat, COOT feels like you’ve been listening to them forever from the first time you turn it on. And with a name like COOT, it’s hard not to like these guys. photo: Steve Seinberg www.reverbnation.com/coot tips for viewing s.c.o.f magazine on an ipad or iphone

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MAG WILL BE SAVED IN IBOOKS TO VIEW ANYWHERE...anytime . Guided trips for trout and striped bass on the fly Tackle, gear, luggage, and outerwear from companies such as : Sage, Tibor, Simms, Patagonia, True Flies, Howler Brothers, Mountain Khakis, Filson, Fishpond, Hardy, Scott, Abel, Hatch, Waterworks-Lamson, and Costa del Mar. COHUTTA FISHING COMPANY Extensive line of flies for both freshwater, and saltwater Full service fly shop located in Cartersville, Georgia and a huge inventory of tying materials from companies such as : Wapsi, Umpqua, Montana Fly, Hareline Dubbin, and Solitude.

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If you live in the South long enough, your path will inevitably at some point lead you to the metro Atlanta area. Whether it be weddings, graduations, business conferences, Panic shows at the Fox, layovers, or perhaps even a family trip to explore the wonders of Underground Atlanta and the World Of Coke, no true Southerner escapes the great suck that is Hotlanta (one of my least favorite terms ever created by humans). My trips to Atlanta have been numerous and generally forget- table. There’s always traffic, a hotel lobby, more traffic, an event, more traffic, my car getting broken into (on three separate occasions), and more traffic. I stand before you today, my fishy friends, a converted man. Atlanta is the snip-snap double shiznit with some salami on top. The key is never going into Atlanta itself. “What, whaat, whaaat???” you say. “How can you go to Atlanta without going into in Atlanta? What is this trickery you purport?” The answer to this (and many other myste- rious questions), is urban sprawl, my con- fused friends. These days, you can techni- cally be in Atlanta and still be miles away from, well, Atlanta. We could go round and round on this point like a Laurel and Hardy bit, but in the most simple terms, if you see Buckhead you’ve gone too far. You’ll know Buckhead because there’s a cop in every bar waiting on a tussle to break out.

By getting off the freeway well north of the big city, you not only save yourself a four- hour traffic jam, you land yourself in one of the most diverse and all-around fun urban fisheries in the country. You name it, Atlan- ta’s got it; trout, yup; carp, by the thousands; Bass, you bet your ass; redfish, well the boys over at Georgia Tech are working on it and expect to have it done by spring of next year in time for tailing season on the lower Hooch. The greatness of this fishery is that for the most part, it’s an in-town fishery ac- cessible to all and utilized by not as many as you’d think, at least for what we want it for.

Timing is everything in fishing, and the same holds true when planning an urban jungle invasion. The moon phase as well as Steve’s men- strual cycle dictated one day of trout on the Hooch with our pal Greg Morgan of River Through Atlanta and one day of Lake Lanier Striper with the only Brooklyn striper guide we could find in Georgia, Henry Cowan.

The Chattahoochee is hard to spell and has a lot of letters. The other thing you’re gonna wanna know about the Hooch is that Hooch is a lot easier to spell. What the river lacks in ease of spelling it more than makes up for in ease of accessibility and sheer amount of fish both stocked and wild. I am not gonna blow smoke up your kilt and tell you that if you close your eyes you might think you were in Alaska. Well, I guess if you close your eyes you can imagine you’re wherever you want, but we floated on a Saturday in Metro Atlanta and had six miles of river to ourselves for the majority of the day. On top of that we caught fish all day long. Just to put that statement in perspective, the last time I pulled into my local tailwater put-in, which is located in a town with less than a tenth the population of Atlanta, on a Satur- day, there were 25 boat trailers. I have no idea where they all came from, but needless to say I did not put in there. Wild brown trout and solitude in a city with almost 5.5 million people… that ain’t a bad thing.

Our next little jaunt took us north to Lake Lanier, which provides all the pre- vious day’s trout the precious cold water they need to survive. Above the dam is one of the most prolific striper fisheries in the Southeast.

Fishing for landlocked striper was a new game for me. A really good morning session has now turned it into what I lie awake thinking about at night. None of the fish we caught were huge by striper standards, but 12 pounds of pissed off runaway freight train striper is the most fun I can remember having for a long, long time, especially on a lake for that matter. Lucky for us, our first time was made gen- tle by the one of the South’s favorite carpetbagging ad- opted sons, Henry Cowen. I probably learned more things that I could take to my fishery in that four-hour session with Henry than I could have spending a thousand hours wandering the Internet and the lake blindly. There is something about hunting those fish that will stick with me and my future fishing plans like a bad case of striper herpes. “There is something about hunting those fish that will stick with me and my future fishing plans like a bad case of striper herpes.” I live in what most folks consider one of the fishier spots in the Southeast, and I can honestly say a wee bit of jealousy crept up as I left Georgia in the rearview. To have all that water in your backyard is enough to make me almost consider leaving Asheville for Atlanta, but then I remember the traffic. I will say though that after a couple of days in Atlanta doing nothing but fishing, that next wedding invitation might not be met with quite so much derision on my end. I’d personally like to thank both Greg Morgan at River Through Atlanta and Henry Cowan for showing me the error of my ways, and turning 23 BUTLER AVENUE • GREENVILLE, SC 29601 • 864.233.0551 me into what can only be described as a true Georgia Peach. Click on their links, book trips from them, and don’t bother trying to understand Authorized Dealer for Echo, G.Loomis, Hardy, Nautilus, R.L.Winston, Ross, Scientiﬁ c Anglers, Scott, Simms & TFO Henry...He’s from Brooklyn.

We carry a complete line of fly tying tools and materials. 52 53 MOVING PICTURES Bent Rod Media

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More than 2,200 Miles of Public Water Available to Fish During the Tournament

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TOWEE BOATS Friday May 3rd - Choose Your GUIDE TES TED S KIFF S Poison - The Caney Fork / Collins River System - near Mcminnville, TN or Melton Hill, near Knoxville, TN. Saturday May 4th - All Teams Fish Caney Fork / Collins River S.C.O.F System followed by Awards BBQ.

A new Towee Rivermaster 16 will be given away by a random drawing of all tournemant participants.

All proceeds to benefit the Town of Highlands Scholarship Fund for Highlands NC School Graduates

www.HighlandsThreeRiver.com or 866-526-5841 TO REGISTER CONTACT TODD GREGORY - [email protected] WWW.MUSKYCHAMPIONSHIP.COM bench press Brad Sprinkle

Church Lady Materials List:

Hook: Mustad 2x Nymph Hook #12-#10 Tail: Mink guard hairs from a ‘old’ mink collard Rib: Copper medium wire. The wire in a lamp cord works great Abdomen: Mink underfur and guard hair. Thorax: Mink underfur and guard hair. Wing: Wingcase material. I use a strip of a recycled chip bag. Thread: 8/0 Tan

Brad Sprinkle is the Fred Sanford of the fly tying world. He’ll dig through your garbage, take your broken headphones, make a fly with the wire, and out fish you the next day with something you could’ve had in your box if you hadn’t thrown it in the trash like a dumbass. In a world where material prices only seem to be rising, Brad’s building an ark… made out of trash. Church Lady

1. Create a thread base on a 2x 2. From your mink skin fin a 3. Tail should be 1/3 the hook 4. Tie in a piece of copper wire nymph hook (#12-#6). This is a patch with lots of guard hair. Tie length. Leave the underfur. The for strength and ribbing. #10. these guard hairs in as a tail. underfur will create a buggy clump at roughly half way on the hook. 5. Dub mink guard hairs in and 6. Let the guard hairs stay and 7. Using idea from a fellow on 8. Tie in a piece of wing-case Palmer forward. protrude erratically. Counter wrap YouTube for making a Zonker material (chip bag). the wire forward to the Thorax or cutter I spaced the double edged 1/3 from the hook eye and tie it razor blades with a 1/64” washer down. per blade. Pull the cutter through the ‘chip bag’ of choice. There are a spectrum colors from vibrant to muted in this material.

Church Lady

5. Dub a clump of underfur and 5. Pull the wing-case material 5. Whip finish. Add a drop of guard hairs to make a plump Tho- over and tie it down. head cement, Zappa-Gap, or Su- rax. perglue.

Growing up in the country at winter time all the ladies wore mink collars or wraps to church. They use to be high fashion before PETA. In recent years a lot of those mink pieces have shown up at yard sales and flea markets and cheap. The chip idea occurred to me one day when I was finishing a small bag of bar b que potato chips at school where I teach. What if?That has spurred a lot of ideas. This fly is wildly erratic and no two look exactly a like. They catch loads of fish. They have caught for me to date crappie, large-mouth bass, small-mouth bass, blue- gill, yellow breasted sunfish, trout, and carp. Great fly on the French Broad River.

Brad Sprinkle Trash Flies http://trashflies.com Clear Cure Goo The Cure to Epoxy www.clearcuregoo.com Jayshow Nelson me your tail Steve Seinberg Scott Davis

Welcome to the grass. I’ll tell you to never start, it will lead to trouble and not just the kind of trouble shady 4 a.m. boat ramps will land you in. This will mean sacrifices. Your friends, sadly, will be whittled down to the few as addicted as yourself and your job and home life will suffer if they don’t completely fall apart. But we understand, it’s not your fault, the high tide is going to flood the grass (albeit at generally the worst times) and if you have to miss appointments and obligations that’s ok.

It’s inches deep and stealth is an absolute must. The water will only be in the grass for a few hours and your window is closing. No hatches, no mending or flurocarbon debates. It’s you and a single cast that will make this happen. Scott Davis Jay Nelson

steve seinberg

scott davis

87 Fur and feather matinee Scott Davis

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Advance tickets, merchandise sales, fly fishing class registrations & program information:vaflyfishingfestival.org Cominga people of Age with Musky inunto the Dirty South themselves Story: Todd Gregory Photos: Steve Seinberg and Chris Willen 94 95 We tend to be fascinated with the recurring theme of social development in a vacuum. Nature versus nurture. What happens to those who grow up without the normal frame of reference that society provides us? The no- tion has spawned its share of weird tales from the Wolf Boy of Mumbai to Jessica Simpson’s career as a country artist. How- ever one of the weirdest tales yet may be the development of the Southern Musky fishing culture on the Collins and Caney Fork Rivers. We were not raised in an ESOX culture. Musky did not haunt my he would have immediately identified them as Tarpon lures and childhood dreams; they existed only as a Northwoods bit actor in launched into a story about the time he lost a 100-pounder off those classic Field and Stream articles that seemed to be no more Apalachicola. The mere mention of probing the clear mountain riv- real to me than a Currier and Ives print, surely true but hidden the ers for giant fish with such gear would have ensured your children mist of someone else’s reality. While the musky is a native fish to a permanent spot at the shunned table in the school cafeteria. The Tennessee, the population had dwindled down to ghost status long public expression of casting giant flies to mythical river beast was before my grandfather’s time. And had you shown a 1960s-era Col- such pure fantasy that it would have surely resulted in a judge’s lins River angler any of the popular musky plugs of the day, committing you to the mental health ward at the county home for the protection of you and those around you. Yet tucked away in a dusty drawer in my grandmother’s house was a faded black-and- white photograph of my grandfather with a Caney Fork musky that had intercepted a smallmouth offering and was fatefully hooked in just the right way to allow its capture. The photo was handled with the same reverence as a religious relic, an ancient icon. We stared at it as if a hidden zipper would become evident and the farce explained, returning us to the comfort of all those

things that we knew to be true and unyielding by its dismissal. Photo : Muskellunge Fishing , 1925 . Ben Robinson.

100 101 102 103 And so we grew up chasing smallmouth, shell cracker and largemouth. The path was clear – we would either become river rats, trout people or answer the call of the salt. The simple-mind- ed would take up tournament bass fishing, the whole lot of us blissfully unaware that some- where on the banks of a mountain river, a group of dedicated biologists were quietly working to awaken the ghost. The die was irrevocably cast and the clock began a decades-long countdown to an event that would tear at the very fabric of our psyche and challenge all that we knew. We each remember the first time we saw them. The circumstances only vary slightly but we immediately knew that we must possess them in some manner, at the very least touch them. We must prove to others that they are real and not a symptom of our own slide into madness.

Our very vocabulary and actions began to change and evolve. Long discussions concern- ing 8/0 vs. 4/0 hooks ensued. Muted pre-dawn conversations in the cafe centered around “bulky but natural”, “what the fuck could they be eating up there” and “tweaker floats” (i.e., a float through areas prone to meth labs which require high capacity magazines, short rods and a really fat forward taper). Damned Yankee carpet- baggers became trusted friends and obscene amounts of money were paid for the use of any remote riverbank where a boat could be skidded into a prime piece of water.

104 105 Twenty years on, and a fly rod musky catch is so common that it has to break 44 inches to gather any more praise than a passing smile and a friendly “nice” from your friends. Shal- low water skiffs share the parking lots with deep V trolling boats and dusty mounts hang from the walls of the café as if they were surely hung prior to the coming of the horseless car- riage. Did we arrive here through our gradual exposure to outside cultures or was it all pre-programmed into our genes, lying dormant and waiting like an ancient predator under a rocky overhang on some remote and hidden stretch of river. Watching—waiting— surviving until the predestined hour of the second coming? I’ll leave that for the anthropologist to decide. I’m short on wire leader and ammunition.

106 107 Todd Gregory’s knowledge of boats is only rivaled by the sheer vol- ume of 80’s era Hilton Head nightmare stories. One day we will film them in documentary/recreation style....I will play young Todd.

108 109 just in case you missed ‘em... PAST ISSUES

issue #0.5 issue #1 issue #2 issue #3 spring 2011 fall 2011 winter 2012 SPRING 2012 preview

issue #4 issue #5 issue #6 Summer 2012 fall 2012 winter 2013 don’t miss another Trolling for marlin off Oahu, tuna fishing on the Grand Banks, commercial whaling......

When you build an amazing skiff that is at home on everything from salt flats to rocky rivers, it’s just easier to list what it can’t do. Prop, jet, push pole or oars - what will you do with your Towee?

112 www.toweeboats.com 113 stratergizing Kent Klewein reakdown s Fishing B ng Bas S: Spri WISE BAS

114photos: Louis Cahill, Charlie Madrerohon, Kent Klewein, and Steve Seinberg There’s tons of lakes readily available for flyfisherman fisherman to to catch catch bass bass throughout throughout the Southern Appalachian region. Unfortunately, these lakes aren’t your two-acre farm pond in your backyard or subdivision that you grew up fishing as a kid—they’re multi-thousand acre reservoirs that can be extremely challenging to learn how to fly fish.

116 117 Fly fishing reservoirs starts with fishing the correct areas.

Fly fishing for bass on public reservoirs is much like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you don’t have a general idea of where the needle is located, your chances of finding it are slim to none. To be successful fly fishing lakes, you’ll have to quickly be able to elimi- nate areas of the lake where the bass aren’t located and then narrow your focus to small areas of the lake that provide bass what they need. Bass need the following: suitable habitat, satisfactory food and comfortable water conditions (water temperature & water depth). All these change depending on the season. In our case, we’ll be fo- cusing on what bass need during the spring. Just like in trout fishing, bass fishing is all about bypassing unproduc- tive water and spending your time fishing the productive water. Eighty percent of the bass on the lakes will be found in 20 percent of the water. If you want to catch them, you’ll need to maximize your time fly fishing the correct water.

118 119 A quality map of between depth change. Bass like areas in a lake where they can the lake is critical. quickly change their depth without having to travel long distances. Keep in mind, all maps aren’t cre- Bass are naturally drawn to these ated equal (and many are total niche areas because they can crap). The map you want to buy make quick position adjustments needs to have enough detail on to stay in the most comfortable it that you can get a clear picture water. It’s exactly like trout prefer- of what the lake looks like under- ring to hold in areas that have the water and what types of cover it three C’s (cover, cuisine and cur- has. Specifically, the map needs to rent protection). Bass are no differ- show good contour lines from the ent. shoreline, out into the main river channel. Contour lines are also referred to as break lines and they Spring is a transition show you depth change. Ideally, period for bass. you want a map that shows five- foot break lines, ten-foot minimum. Spring brings longer days and ris- Anything less than that and you re- ing water temperatures. This en- ally won’t have enough information courages bass to move up from to locate hot spots to start looking their deep water winter sanctuar- for bass, come spring. For quality ies into shallower water to follow lake maps for the Southern Ap- their forage food and scout out palachian region go to www.maps. spawning grounds in prepara- tva.com tion for reproducing. The entire process of spawning requires an Study your lake map before you insane amount of energy for bass, hit the water. Locate your main and they’re forced to build up points, prime humps, flats and large fat reserves to keep them creek channel mouths that are lo- from starving and successfully re- cated close to spawning grounds. producing. The key reason spring Once you find those, search out is one of the best times of the year spots where the break lines are for fly fisherman, is because bass close together. These are areas are moving into shallower water that should have lots of food, and their feeding activity signifi- plenty of structure and a wide cantly increases. You’ve got op- range of depth. The farther away portunistic feeding bass located break lines are from each other at depths where you can present on a map, the longer the distance your fly to them effectively. 120 121 Although spring is great all around for chasing bass on the fly, the best time by far is during the pre-spawn. This is the period where the bass are staging around the spawning grounds before they get on the beds. It generally lasts four to five weeks and can be timed by paying close attention to the water temperature on your lake. Spotted and smallmouth bass go into pre-spawn when water temperatures hover around 53-55 degrees and spawn around 57-58 degrees, while largemouth bass postpone their pre-spawn until water reaches 62-64 degrees and spawn around 65 degrees. Once the bass get on the beds, fishing is more condu- cive to conventional tackle. However, if your lake has all three species of bass, you can keep the fishing hot by starting out targeting the spots and smallmouth pre-spawn and then switch to targeting largemouth. This way you’re able to capitalize on the peak periods of fishing during the pre-spawn for all species. Tip: Largemouth go on the bed when the dog woods start to bloom.

Locating bass in the spring.

A mentor of mine once told me, “bass live deep and feed shallow.” It doesn’t hold true 100 percent of the time, but the majority for sure. When bass feed, they usually move up into shallower water to do so, and they do it in the spring primarily, because that’s where (and when) the most food is located in the lake. If you want to get really technical about where to look for bass, fly anglers should focus on areas of the lake that get the most sun and heat up the fastest in the spring. On really large lakes this will likely be the north side. That’s where the sun will shine on the water for the longest period of the day. Next, anglers want to look for rocky areas with large chunk rock. The rock absorbs the suns energy, and in turn, heats up the water faster than in other areas of the lake. On most of our South- ern mountain lakes, rock is pretty easy to find. Unfortunately, not all rocky areas of the lake will hold equal bass numbers. Focus your efforts on fishing long rocky points tapering into deep water and rocky humps and flats adjacent to deep water on the main lake. That’s where you’re going to find your spots and smallmouth.

122 123 Today’s latest GPS/sonar side and water temperatures begin rising into down scan imaging electronics can the 50s. A crayfish pattern should be give you a two or three-dimensional one of your first flies you tie on when underwater view so detailed, they’ve fly fishing lakes in the spring. There been used to locate people who have are quite a few good crayfish patterns drowned. If you’re uneasy with elec- out there today to choose from and all tronics, hire a guide that specializes species of bass eat them. Just make in teaching clients how to read and sure your pattern is tied on a jig-style fish with them. Remember how many hook, so it rides hook point up in the fish you caught and how much you water and has with plenty of weight. learned when you finally broke down That will keep your fly near the bot- and hired a trout guide? It’s going to tom where the crayfish are found, limit be the same story when you hire a snagging and provide you maximum professional bass guide. Lastly, make action. Because crayfish prefer rocky the investment of purchasing lake habitat, make sure you’re fishing them maps for your electronics. That way around rock cover. That’s where you’ll you’ll have the same detail of your find them to be most effective. map and can use them together to navigate you to the prime water. The The other main forage food that bass For largemouth, you’ll want to primarily target wood, also on points, Lowrance Elite-7X HDI and the Hum- feed on heavily during the spring will humps and flats. But you’ll want to look for them more in the creeks’ mingbird 998c HD or 958C HD are be baitfish, like blue-back herring and mouths adjacent to shallow water that’s generally found on the upper some of my favorite boating electron- shad. Blue-back herring have been part of the lake where it’s being fed. Vegetation also absorbs sun and will ics. illegally introduced on just about ev- increase the speed as water warms up around it. If you can find it then ery one of our lakes in the Southeast. definitely fish it, but since most of our mountain lakes are pretty deep and They’re great for growing big bass vegetation requires light to grow, you’ll find that it’s much easier to locate Spring forage food but they’re a double-edged sword rock than aquatic weeds. and fly patterns. because they also feed on bass eggs and fry. I have a love/hate relationship Utilizing your boat electronics One of the most important food with them because they provide bass sources for bass during the spring is is 80 percent of bass fishing. with an almost limitless amount of crayfish. It shouldn’t be a big surprise food, but they can absolutely devas- since our rocky mountain lakes pro- The most successful bass anglers are constantly watching their electron- tate their spawning efforts. Fish bait- vide the perfect habitat for them to ics while fishing. Your electronics are your eyes below the water. If you fish patterns when you physically see thrive. Crayfish are full of protein and don’t bother to use them, you’re practically fishing blind. bass on the water, on your electronics easy pickings for bass. They come or when your crayfish patterns aren’t out of their burrows and flock to the A quick glance at a screen will tell you water depth, water temperature producing. rocky banks in great numbers once and whether or not bass or the food they’re eating are in the vicinity. 124 125 Blue-back herring school up and never really stop moving except when they’re spawning themselves, so it can be difficult at times to stay on their tail, and the bass that are chasing them. They also like open water, which will pull bass off of structure in pursuit. Before we got blue-back herring in our lakes, the bass rarely ventured far from the shoreline and adjacent deep water structure. Back then, crayfish and bream were the dominant food sources and open water isn’t where you find them. Keep this in mind if you’re striking out in shallow water. You may need to back off into deeper water or motor around until you find schools of baitfish particularly during the post- spawn. As for baitfish patterns, fly size is the most critical, followed by color. Three inches is a good starting point but pay attention to the size of the baitfish if you get a bead on them in the water. Sub- surface patterns will produce better than topwater, except when it’s early or late in the day, when bass are corralling them up and bust- ing them on the surface.

126 127 Water depth, toward your structure until you start getting bites. During this process, water temperature, you’ll want to keep a close eye on and wind. your electronics to keep yourself fishing at your target depth and direction. Water temperature is probably the When you catch a bass, make a men- number one variable in the equation tal note of the water’s depth and tem- for consitently catching bass in lakes. perature. Then focus on keeping ev- If you’re wanting to hit the lake dur- ery detail of your fly fishing the same, ing the pre-spawn, wait at least until from water depth to your fly retrieve. the water temperature gets into the low 50s. Before that, you’ll probably Wind isn’t a bad thing either. At times, find the bass too deep for you to re- it can be your best friend. I’ve had ally be effective at catching them with some of my best days fly fishing for a fly rod. It’s not impossible—I know bass after there had been a couple striper guys who catch bass deep. It’s days of consistent wind blowing in the just more technical. The shallower the same direction. Wind blows and con- bass, the easier they’ll be to catch. centrates food and that can create a feeding frenzy for bass. Furthermore, Pay close attention to what the weath- wind masks your position and makes er is doing. A stretch of three or four bass less spooky. If you’re on the lake days of consistent warm weather will fly fishing and the wind picks up and really turn the fish on and get them holds direction, make a point to fish moving shallow. That’s when you want close to the windy points, humps and to time your fly fishing trip. Find rocky flats. You can catch the heck out of points, ledges around the edges of bass in those conditions. Lastly, wind humps and flats, and creek mouths can churn up and muddy water. Don’t close to spawning grounds in six to be afraid of fly fishing muddy water. 12 feet of water. That’s a good starting Bass have no problem with it unless point when you’ve had great weather, they’re on the beds. In muddy wa- but if a cold front comes in, you’ll ter conditions, bass will move tight want to back off five feet or more to cover and also more shallow. Be into deeper water to follow the bass prepared to make repeated casts to making position adjustments for the cover, since the strike zone will be changing weather. Find a rocky point smaller. Flies with rattles are a good or flat that has multiple break lines idea for windy and muddy water con- and start off fishing parallel to a deep ditions because extra sound helps the break line. Continue moving shallower bass zero in on your fly. 128 129 The gear.

I carry two different set- ups with me when I’m fly fishing lakes in the spring. One’s for targeting bass in shallow water and the other is for targeting bass in deep water. My shallow water rig consists of a 9’ 0” 7wt with a clear intermediate fly line. I’ll start out at- taching a 7 1/2’ 3X fluorocarbon leader, but if I’m not getting bites and I’ve located bass on my electronics, I’ll switch to a 4X leader.

For my deep water rig, I use a 9’ 0” saltwater 8-9wt rod with a 375 grain sinking line. I attach a four-foot section of 3X-4X fluorocarbon tip- pet and tie my fly on with non-slip loop knot.

130 131 One of the biggest mistakes anglers make when fishing our Southern mountain lakes is fishing line that’s too heavy. You want to stick to the 5-8lb. range. Don’t go too heavy on your hooks either or you’ll have a hard time getting the hook to penetrate on hook sets or risk breaking off. Use about the same size hooks you use when tying streamers for trout. I’ve found 60-degree jig hooks in size 1 or 2 work well.

Get out there this spring and catch those bass on the fly.

Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline

Sunday Funday

Story: David Grossman Photos: Steve Seinberg Fishing the reservation is a shock to every sense. The only place where things might be bigger than in Texas is Cherokee—from the size of the fish in the pay-to-play trophy water, to the size of the casino buffet. Often written off by local fly flingers and eschewedas too crowded, too poached and too expensive, it’s the type of place where you’re going to see a lot more out-of-town plates than local ones in the turnouts. I am here to contend, however, that much like a loveable transvestite, Cherokee is simply misunder- stood. If you go over the mountain and expect to catch steelhead every time you cast on a stream that is devoid off jackasses, well, you’re in for some disappointment. But, if you go to Cherokee looking at the big picture with an open mind and a loose sense of political correctness, well now we have some room to have some fun. With my patented three-prong approach of fishing, perusing the local shops for the finest in tourist apparel and a trip to the casino, a day of fun on the reservation is not only possible… it’s guaranteed. The Fishing

Cherokee is the most heavily stocked piece of land in the Southeast. The general waters are stocked every week and the fly fishing-only waters are stocked based on an abstract equation, with holidays and pre-fly tournaments being the only constants. If you fish the general waters, it’s not so much about finding the fish (they’re ev- erywhere), as it is finding a place where you won’t be beat about the head and chest by night crawlers. The fly fish-only water is an entire different beast altogether. I’ve had days where I netted nine over 20 in the first three hours I was there. I’ve had days where I could not be convinced that there was a trout in the river, and I’ve also had days where I waited all day on a hole only to have an obese shirtless Native American man decide to porpoise Shamu-like through my water after my second cast. It’s a crapshoot most days. My only ad- vice is to go when the weather is bad and the water is high—big fish eat big flies on high water, if you know what I mean.

The Shopping

Now this where I lose a lot of you, but please give me a chance to explain. Once you’ve caught some pellet pigs, the novelty tends to wear off. Once you’ve had your fill of the water, you really owe it to yourself to see what the Cherokee’s fine purveyors of schlock have going on. Where else can you walk into a single shop and get yourself and your fishing buddy a “BFF” airbrushed t-shirt, a Budweiser bikini for the wife, and a velvet portrait of a bear eating a fish in rontf of a rainbow? Cherokee, my friends, that’s where. And there are at least a million of those shops within a four-block radius. On my trip, the deals of the day were personalized sheriff’s badges, coonskin caps and serapes. I was looking for a sombrero, but no dice. Still, I think I came out way ahead. The Casino

After a long day of fishing and spending money on oddities of the retail world, I like to end my day at the casino. Yes, one of the benefits of spending your time fishing on reservations is that they often have a casino conveniently close to the river for all of the dark pleasures the river can’t provide. Now I have friends that walk onto the casino floor and disappear amongst a cloud of good intentions and bad judgment, never to be heard from again. Me, I head straight for the buffet. It is the only game where the house always loses when I play. Now don’t get suckered into loading up on carbs. What you’re looking for after spending $25 per person is protein. My simple rule is pasta station, bad; carving station, good; peel-and-eat shrimp, at your own risk. Once I have satiated myself on food from every corner of the globe, that’s when I finally hit the casino floor with a good prime rib-stuffed head on my shoulders. Take a turn yankin’ on the one-arm ban- dit or waddle up to a blackjack table. Re- ally, it’s pick your poison here, folks. I realize we have strayed a little from the strictly fishing side of things here, but sometimes fishing to stocked fish just isn’t enough to satisfy an ad- venturous sole. So, by following this simple plan you can turn what you tell your wife is a fishing trip into so, so much more. the monkey is back...

and still SURLY

in the S.C.O.F store a hip place for fly people

280 WEST COLEMAN BLVD . SUITE E . CHARLESTON , SC 29464 . 843.388.5337 . WWW.LOWCOUNTRYFLYSHOP.COM

152 153 photo: Steve Seinberg Ain’t no party like a SCOF fly tying party, ‘cause a SCOF fly tying party don’t stop. Well, it was over by six, but that’s neither here nor there. tie-one-on-athon 2013

The third year of the Tie-One-On-Athon went down at the SCOF offices this past February, and in every measurable way this year was the best so far.

• $2000 donated to the Western North Carolina Chapter of Project Healing Waters. • 900 flies tied by guides, commercial tiers, and a whole lot of other people that just wanted to help. • More than $5000 worth of swag given away to attendees including an Orvis H2 (thanks, Orvis!). • One jar of “Kool-Aid” from high up in the hills of East Tennesee, consumed. • Late-night howling at the moon session featuring the sultry guitar stylings of Paul Puckett.

The only thing that could make it better next year is if we turn it into a “white party” like those rap videos. We’re not sure though— we think that might be racist.

TheBy Paul Back Puckett Page

Interracial fish porn. photo: Steve Seinberg 8 168 july 20132013 summer issue # 169 made in asheville, nc | S.C.O.F issue no. 6 | winter 2013